“Speaking from his role as an evangelical leader, Wallis asks Americans to move from satisfying their appetites to living their values day-by-day: ‘People were made for family, community, and human flourishing, not consumerism, materialism, addiction, and empty overwork.’

“Wallis prophetically criticizes the damaging role money is playing in politics, and he is upset about the growing inequality between the rich and the poor. He ends with praise for the old fashioned values of marriage and parenting, noting with pride his love of being a Little League coach.”

“‘Ancient-Future’ expresses the connection between ancient wisdom and future possibilities that I want to create in this series. The term is used in the arts to emphasize a blending of tradition and innovation.

“Ancient-future music and dance fuses centuries-old traditions with contemporary genres and technology. By learning from the world’s great traditions and ancient practices, artists create cross-cultural expressions that are richly profound yet also widely appealing.

“In this series, I combine the ancient art of lectio divina with contemporary Bible study to produce work that is richly traditional and attractively engaging.”

“Not many, including myself at one point in time, would have considered mythology an avenue to the betterment of the world in which we live, but after reading Matthew Dickerson’s A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth I not only consider this genre a valid option, but a necessary one.

“After all, Tolkien’s world is ‘in some sense connected to our own history’ (albeit only culturally and literarily); it is not merely a never-never land as Tolkien himself might say, but a tall tale that is meant to incite our hearts and imaginations to set in motion a more transcendent way of life for all earth’s inhabitants.”

“The book finds its own pleasant balance between theory and practical realities, offering tips for managing technology as basic and important as the use of email to resolve conflict. . .; reclaiming Sabbath; questioning how busy, busy, busy we are and what we can do about it.

“This is a significant and readable book for any person of faith wanting to at least consider we might actually be servants of technology, instead of the other way around.”

“Gary L. Colledge’s God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author (Brazos 2012) makes the convincing case that behind each of Dickens’s novels is a consistent vision of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. . . . This is an aspect of Dickens that we have not heard enough about this year, the 200th anniversary of his birth, neither in the public commemorations nor in the academic press.”

“Gary Colledge’s helpful work, published on the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth, urges Christian readers in particular to consider rescuing Dickens from the literary quicksand of the past. . . . Colledge, adjunct professor at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Walsh University in Canton, Ohio, proposes that Dickens’s voice is as relevant today as it was in the past, as his works address significant issues of poverty, justice, personal hypocrisy, and faith.”

“. . . Colledge’s work has been among the most valuable contributions to Dickens scholarship in recent years. His new book, God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author, focuses on a crucial aspect of Dickens’s life and work that has been sadly neglected of late.

“Without an awareness of this aspect, Colledge rightly believes, we are hampered in our understanding of Dickens’s work. . . .

“. . . The resulting book will appeal to and enlighten Dickens readers at all levels, from the casual fan to the serious scholar.”

Following is an excerpt of his response to the question, “How much value should opinions of what is orthodox or what is heretical drive or limit one’s consideration of new ideas?”

“That’s a tough question, in part because orthodoxy and heterodoxy are not always as clear across the Christian spectrum as we might like to believe. . . . I think one’s exploratory thinking shouldn’t constantly reinvent the wheel, but be in conversation both with the broad Christian tradition and with those who disagree on the basis of their perceptions of what that tradition requires. . . .

“. . . when perceived systems of orthodoxy are seen as unquestioned arbiters of new ideas, the truth is not going to be served, and therefore God is not going to be served. Rather than, ‘What you say challenges our system, and so you are wrong,’ I would like to hear, ‘What you say challenges our system, yet we assume what you have to say is worth listening to. We do not know exactly where this will go at the outset, but let’s trust each other as we take this journey together.'”

“Charles Dickens, the iconic 19th-century English author who penned such classics as A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, filled his works with Christian references in a bid to encourage authentic devotion to Jesus Christ. But scholars and critics have ignored or downplayed this aspect of Dickens to such a degree that readers now commonly miss it.

“The book popularizes insights gleaned from Colledge’s graduate work on Dickens at St. Andrew’s University. Writing in accessible prose, Colledge quotes extensively from Dickens’ fiction and a bit from his journalism in order ‘to let him speak so that we might hear Dickens the Christian.'”